The federal government has ­abandoned the $20 billion target of its much-lauded 10-year program to cut waste and inefficiency in defence after a series of budget spending cuts.

The strategic reform program (SRP), which was designed to generate savings to put to more vital defence priorities such as weapons and new equipment, was announced in 2008 by then defence minister
Joel Fitzgibbon
and meant to curb the overall defence draw on taxpayer funds.

But Defence Department secretary
Dennis Richardson
, pressed by ­Coalition defence spokesman
David Johnston
over whether defence had abandoned the program, conceded it would be difficult to deliver on the $20 billion target.

“Has the program fallen off the rails?" Senator Johnston asked, ­querying whether it would jeopardise efforts to reinvest funds on much-needed new equipment.

But Mr Richardson said the impact of the global financial crisis and the “money taken from the defence budget mean it will be difficult to deliver ­$2 billion a year in savings over the next seven years’’.

“Defence will continue to make ­savings but I don’t believe it will deliver the full measure," he said.

But Mr Richardson said it would be incorrect to say defence had “fallen off" the savings push, saying the senior ­leadership group was committed to pressing for savings but not of the order outlined since 2008.

He said the program had, so far, delivered $3.3 billion in savings over three years to be redirected to more important priorities in defence, such as weapons projects.

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Mr Richardson said circumstances had changed since the program was introduced in 2009 because defence had to make a “contribution to the ­government’s fiscal consolidation" as it strived to realise a surplus in the wake of the GFC.

He also provided additional ­information on defence spending, ­suggesting the government had pledged to spend $113 billion over the next four years, plus an additional $220 billion in the six years after that, bringing the 10-year total to $333 billion over the decade. No figure was available for the decade beyond.

He also confirmed the 2013 defence policy white paper that laid out Labor’s vision for the next 20 years, which included new fighter jets, warships and submarines and softened Australia’s stance on China, had come cheaply, costing about $500,000, excluding the launch, to produce.

Former prime minister
Kevin Rudd
’s 2009 defence white paper was put together in 18 months, with more than half the spending, or ­$16 million, going on external consultants.

Defence spending analyst
Mark Thomson
said the SRP had became “unviable" because of deep cuts to defence funding in 2012-13 and mounting budget pressures in areas that were supposed to be delivering the savings.

“When you have slashed and burned the place with arbitrary cuts, it’s a bit hard to maintain the commitment to the SRP as well," he said

He said much of the savings claimed so far were “implausible and exaggerated" and “reported against hypothetical business as usual baselines".

“Savings are being achieved and real worthwhile reform is under way, but not on the dollar scale claimed," he said.

A spokesman for Defence Minister
Stephen Smith
said reform of objectives of the SRP remained current but savings programs across defence had been “consolidated".

“The government remains committed to ensure defence is an effective and efficient organisation and that every defence dollar is spent wisely and on the government’s highest priorities."